It was around about a year into his tenure as Arsenal manager when Mikel Arteta highlighted a major problem in his squad - a lack of goals from midfield.
In the 2020/21 campaign, Mohamed Elneny, Thomas Partey, Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka managed four goals between them across all competitions, whilst the more creative players such as Willian, Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard managed seven in total.
"It's very clear. If you say 'can they do it?' it's a question mark. Have they done it in the past? The answer is no," Arteta said in December 2020. "We haven't had any goals from midfield, it's not something that happened [just] this year, it happened in other years and is something that has to be addressed.
